7 
It appeared to me to be a rather shy bird; most of the few specimens obtained were shot on 
the wing while flying overhead.” 
In its habits the Blue-headed Wagtail has much in common with our common Pied 
Wagtail. Like that species it is frequently met with in the vicinity of water, in damp swampy 
meadows, and in marshy localities, but especially in grassland, whether damp or not, if cattle 
are grazing about; for it follows these latter and catches the insects which are generally found 
immediately around them. It runs with the greatest ease and grace, every now and again 
nodding its head and jerking its tail, and is, as a rule, not a shy bird; and, unless in places 
where it has been subject to persecution, I have rarely found much trouble in approaching 
within a tolerably short distance of it. Its flight is lighter and swifter than that of the Pied 
Wagtail; and though also consisting of a series of bow-shaped lines, yet these are more regular 
and longer than those in the flight of that species, and altogether the flight of the present 
species somewhat more resembles that of the Pipits. It is amusing to watch them when in the 
spring of the year they are pursuing each other, turning on the wing with the greatest ease, 
their rich colours gleaming in the bright sunshine, and appearing almost brighter than they 
really are. When on the ground the present species does not hop, but runs, taking rather 
short steps, the tail being held horizontal, and every now and then gently moved. It frequently, 
however, perches on a bush or a fence, but does not appear to sit very steadily on a twig, the 
feet being formed rather for walking than perching. It appears to be a much less hardy species 
than the Pied Wagtail, and leaves earlier for the south, appearing to shun the least cold. It 
feeds on insects of various descriptions, such as gnats, small grasshoppers, caterpillars, &c., 
but more especially winged insects of various sorts, which it both picks off the grass-stems 
and catches on the wing; and one often sees it at the edge of the water in search of insects, 
and still more frequently, as before stated, in the vicinity of cattle. 
It breeds somewhat late, the full complement of eggs being usually deposited in the latter 
half of May, or even later; and so far as I can ascertain it appears, as a rule, to rear but one 
brood in the season. Its nest is placed on the ground, usually under shelter of an overhanging 
tussock, being carefully concealed, and it is not unfrequently placed in the bank of an old 
dried-out ditch or amongst tolerably dense herbage. The nest is constructed of fine rootlets, 
grass, straws, and bents, sometimes intermixed with moss, not strongly but rather loosely built, 
and lined with horse-hair, wool, or fine bents. I have never found any feathers in nests I have 
taken; but Naumann says that it not unfrequently lines its nest with wool intermixed with a 
few downy feathers. 
The eggs, from four to five, more seldom six, in number, are somewhat small for the size of 
the bird, those in my collection averaging about #5 by $5 of an inch, and are dirty white, closely 
marbled and clouded with clay-brown, yellowish buff, or greyish, the colour being so closely clouded 
on the surface of the shell as to make it difficult to say what the ground-colour really is. 
Mr. A. Benzon, writing to me respecting its habits and nidification in Denmark, writes as 
follows :—‘It is everywhere common on the lowlands, even close to Copenhagen, frequenting 
the meadows. It builds on the ground, frequently on a bank, carefully hidden in the herbage, 
and in a sort of depression under shelter of a tussock, or even on the flat earth with but little 
shelter. ‘The nest is lined with fine roots, fine bents, horse-hair, wool, and, though seldom, a 
